Colorado Classics

Colorado Classics: Joe Sanchez, former Denver Post sportswriter

Joe Sanchez has been enjoying life during his retirement. Sanchez, who worked for The Denver Post for 42 years, covered all six of the Broncos' Super Bowl appearances. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

In case you didn't live in Colorado or your memory is a little fuzzy about the Broncos' first trip to the Super Bowl, Joe Sanchez is an excellent source to clear up any details.

Sanchez was the Broncos' beat writer for The Denver Post when the team stopped being the laughingstock of the NFL and, after a whirlwind 1977 season, advanced to Super Bowl XII on Jan. 15, 1978, against the Dallas Cowboys at the Louisiana Superdome.

The Broncos of coach Red Miller, quarterback Craig Morton and a tough defense known as the Orange Crush lost 27-10 to the Cowboys, but the Broncos had arrived as the major sports story throughout Colorado. Broncos fans had lived through 17
previous seasons in the American Football League and the NFL with just three winning seasons.

When the 1977 team went 12-2 in the regular season, the Broncos' image shifted from a tired old workhorse to a spirited mustang.

Sanchez covered five more Super Bowls with the Broncos participating, including XXXII after the 1997 season, when Denver finally won the trophy, beating the Green Bay Packers 31-24, and XXXIII the following year,
when the Broncos beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-19. The first trip, however, captured the state more than any of the others.

"Before the final game of the (1977) regular season, people were painting their houses orange," Sanchez said. "Red Miller was being given orange telephones. People were thinking of any way they could to say they loved the Broncos."

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Sanchez remembered that Miller became as big a hero as any of the players. It was Miller's first season in Denver, and it coincided with Sanchez's first season on the Broncos beat. Miller had geared up for his chance to coach the Broncos as an assistant coach in the AFL and NFL, including 1963-65 with the Broncos. Sanchez gained insight into the Broncos when assigned to cover a players revolt that led to the dismissal of coach John Ralston after a 9-5 season in 1976. Miller coached the Broncos for another three seasons after the Super Bowl year, and Sanchez covered the Broncos for 20 more years.

Maybe the No. 1 memory Sanchez has of that season was watching the team's linebacker crew establish itself as the leaders of the Orange Crush. It was a dominating group led by Randy Gradishar and Tom Jackson, along with Bob Swenson and Joe Rizzo.

"I don't think there has been a better linebacker group than what the Broncos had that year," Sanchez said. "They were the greatest short-yardage defenders in the history of the game, as far as I'm concerned."

The Orange Crush held regular-season opponents to an average of 10.6 points per game.

Sanchez can't understand how Gradishar isn't in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Denver media called Gradishar the "Shmoo" out of the Lil Abner comic strip, because neither could be knocked off his feet.

Sanchez credits Jackson with one of the zingers of the season when the Broncos linebacker told Oakland coach John Madden, "It's all over, fat man," late in a 30-7 victory over the Raiders.

Sanchez remembered how the Broncos took to Miller's game plan. The philosophy was conservative: Protect your half of the field, and attack on the other team's half of the field.

Morton, an aging quarterback with bad knees, worked the system to perfection. Morton joined with wide receiver Haven Moses to make up the M&M Connection.

Sanchez retired as a sportswriter in 2006. He is kept busy by supporting the art business of his wife, Trish, and their daughter, Lisa, and by playing golf and traveling.

He follows the course of this year's Broncos team in its bid to reach the Super Bowl. But it won't be a duplicate of 1977, the season that launched Broncomania.

Not all kids who play baseball are uniformed with fancy script across their chests, traveling to $1,000 instructional camps and drilled how to properly hit the cut-off man. Some kids just play to play.